Oakland County woman avoids prison in NFL pension fraud

DETROIT (AP) -- The daughter of an ex-Chicago Bears player from Oakland County has been sentenced to six months in a halfway house for collecting about $70,000 from an NFL retirement fund after her dad died.

Detroit federal Judge David Lawson says Constance Helwig-Langlois qualified for prison for the "serial crime." But he accepted the government's request to give her a break Thursday.

John Helwig played for the Bears in the 1950s. He died in 1994, but retirement checks kept coming. Helwig's wife illegally cashed them for 13 years until she died in 2007. Their daughter kept the scheme going until 2011.

Helwig-Langlois has apologized and says she suffers from depression. She also must repay about $50,000 illegally collected from an annuity. Living at a halfway house lets her work during the day.